ELON — Few people are as beloved anywhere as J. Earl Danieley is on Elon University’s campus.

On paper, his biography is impressive but relatively colorless. The college’s sixth president, from 1957 to 1973 and named president emeritus in 1992, Danieley is a chemistry professor who still teaches nearly 70 years after he graduated.

It’s when you give him an audience or classroom that his spark catches and spreads. He ceases to be J. Earl Danieley and becomes “Dr. D,” teacher and entertainer.

“Dr. D.” made an extended appearance Wednesday before several thousand gathered for Elon University’s spring convocation and celebration of the school’s 125th year. It was billed as “A Conversation with President Emeritus J. Earl Danieley,” and current President Leo Lambert led Danieley through events that shaped his life and the university.

An example of the adoration for him: As Danieley began telling the story of how he met his late wife of 62 years, Verona, a female student in the audience began nudging all her friends, exclaiming in a stage whisper, “I love this story! This is my favorite!”

Danieley met his future wife when he rescued her from a rogue mouse inside one of Elon’s classrooms.

“I was so brave! I walked in and saved the young damsel. Then I took her to a football game at Guilford,” Danieley paused, “and everywhere else with me from then on.”

DANIELEY, 89, grew up on a rural Alamance County farm, and quickly realized he didn’t want to work in tobacco or in a textile mill. He figured being a postal carrier might be the best job he could pursue.

Then he began attending Elon College, first floundering as a U.S. history major before trying math and finally discovering chemistry in 1944 after a hiatus for farming and other work during World War II. He graduated with a degree in chemistry in 1946. He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in organic chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

He taught chemistry at the college until he was named dean in 1953.

“I think the teaching of young people is the greatest calling a person can respond to,” Danieley said. “I never had any doubt that I wanted to teach. Even in days when I was out of the field, … I was always wanting to get back to the classroom.”

In 1957, while conducting post-doctoral research at Johns Hopkins University, he got a phone call from trustee George Coakley. He assumed there was bad news on the line.

“We elected a new president today,” Coakley told him. “You.”

“Nobody had talked to me about being president. No one asked me if I wanted it. I hadn’t applied for it,” Danieley said, reliving his surprise on the stage. “I said, ‘George, you’re crazy,’ and I meant it.”

Page 2 of 2 - Danieley accepted the position, at 32 becoming one of the nation’s youngest college presidents.

AT THAT TIME, the school’s future looked bleak. Loans were due, buildings were crumbling, and students were crammed into overcrowded classrooms. Just before he became president, he overheard a man in Burlington disparage the college by saying, “If you can’t go to college, go to Elon.”

“I was determined I would shut that guy’s mouth. I would not hear that again,” Danieley said. “This was not just another place to work. This was, in every sense, a mission. We realized this institution was doing great things for students.”

And so Danieley — an organic chemist with a zeal for teaching but not as much for fundraising — was tasked with spearheading the college’s first major funding campaign. Gradually, he was able to raise the capital the school needed to expand, to add new academic programs and recruit more students.

During his tenure, Danieley integrated Elon, accepting its first African-American student, Glenda Phillips Hightower of Burlington. He launched the school’s study abroad program. And he put it on a path to becoming the nationally recognized institution it is today.

“I enjoy seeing this institution grow and develop. Whatever you do, it pleases me so much to see it come along,” Danieley said. “I love to see those people at Chapel Hill and Duke and hear them say, ‘I hope my children can come to Elon.’

“It’s a wonderful community and a delightful place to be. I can’t imagine anything that would have been any more wonderful than to be here for these 73 years.”